


That's What Girls Do

by breathing_and_writing



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Confused Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, F/M, Identity Reveal, POV Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Silly Songs with Ladybug Challenge, one-sided reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:01:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25662523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breathing_and_writing/pseuds/breathing_and_writing
Summary: Adrien has never understood Marinette’s behavior towards him, and he’s determined to find out why she acts like that. But his investigation may lead him to discover more than he expected, after all:“That’s what girls do.”Or: Adrien doesn't know much about girls.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 8
Kudos: 78





	That's What Girls Do

**Author's Note:**

> Originally [posted on Tumblr](https://breathing-and-writing.tumblr.com/post/183807001009/thats-what-girls-do) for the Silly Songs With Ladybug Challenge 2019.  
> Song: That's What Girls Do by No Secrets.

Adrien walked into class just as the bell that signaled the start of lunch break rang. A photoshoot that had run longer than expected prevented him from arriving to class at all, so now he walked towards Ms. Bustier’s desk to collect all the work he had missed, perhaps if she saw him she would leave him less work, perhaps. No one had left the classroom yet, and Ms. Bustier was explaining something from the lesson to Nathanael, so he turned around to greet Nino. Or he would’ve, had a loud squeak not caught his attention.  


“Alya, can we just like, not talk about this right now?”  


“Marinette, this is a total scoop! I haven’t even shown you all the pictures yet!”  


Alya showed her phone to her friend once again, but instead of being excited for her friend’s material like always, she tensed and took a few steps away.  


He silently approached Nino, “What are they talking about?” His curiosity itched with every passing second of their interaction, he was familiar with Marinette’s awkwardness and nervousness, but this was different.  


“Oh, Alya just took new pictures last night that contribute to her ‘Ladynoir is canon’ theory.” He casually said as Adrien returned their usual fistbump.  


“Oh,” Adrien smiled as he remembered the events of last night’s patrol, “isn’t that good though?”  


“Not only good but awesome! I’ve been waiting to take some pictures like this for months! And almost none of them are blurry.” She turned accusingly to her best friend, who had been slowly inching closer towards the classroom door. “Which is why I don’t get your reaction girl. I know you don’t ship Ladynoir as much as I do, but these pictures are very good, the best I’ve taken of them this month!”  


“I mean, it’s not like I’m not proud of you Alya, I am! It’s just, uh-” Marinette looked away and started blushing, blushing! Adrien had never seen her blushing unless she was talking to him though, and it seemed that she hadn’t even noticed he was in the room. “I just-gottagobye!” And with that, she bolted out of the classroom.  


“Marinette!” Alya called out to her friend as she ran to catch up with her, which left him, Nino, and the rest of the class wondering just what had just happened.  


“Does anybody know what that was?” Adrien went to look at his classmates which just looked back at him with equally confused faces, well all of them except-  


“Do you know what happened?” Nino said louder so he could be heard by the girls, which until then had been in a circle talking in hushed voices.  


“Oh, about Marinette?” Alix’s nonchalant tone only unnerved him more. “Why would we know anything?”  


Nino’s response was interrupted by Mylene. “But if you must know,” the rest of the girls started giggling, “that’s what girls do.”

┅┅┅┅┅

Adrien was starting to get thankful for ridiculous akumas, for as cringy as they were, they were always the easiest ones to defeat, and with his tight schedule and Hawkmoth’s obsession for doing midnight akumas, he appreciated an easy defeat. He hadn’t used his cataclysm this time, so he just stood calmly as he saw Ladybug swinging towards him. She landed with a smile.  


“Pound it!” They said in unison as their fists bumped.  


This was about the time that the reporters started to form a busy circle around them, asking so many questions that it was hard to answer. Usually, Ladybug was glad to talk to them while Chat Noir looked after the akuma victim, but this time he had time to be there too. He noticed how isolated he had been from these impromptu interviews when he saw Alya stepping at the front of the group, and as soon as the others noticed her their questions started to halt.  


“Hi, Alya! How’s the blog going?” Adrien could’ve been run over by a train and he wouldn’t have noticed, never at any of the press events he had been, had reporters left a free path for another one, that just didn’t happen.  


He watched in silence as the girls continued their exchange, trying to find a reason as to why Ladybug would have a clear preference for Alya. Wasn’t she the most avid to find out their identities? Of course, she was a wonderful person and enjoyed talking to her, but he actually knew her in real life. He would’ve continued to be in a coma had an undignified squeak not tore through his train of thought.  


“So yeah I took these pictures from your patrol last night, what do you think? I haven’t edited them yet but-” He stopped listening to her at the look on his lady’s face, the look on his lady’s blushing face. Since when did she blush? It was probably because of how tense she was, not because she was actually embarrassed, right?  


Alya seemed to notice Ladybug’s change of mood too. “What happened? Oh you don’t like the pictures, right? I know I took them at night and with my phone, but they are actually very good and once they are edited I swear that-”  


“Alya!” Ladybug managed to choke out. “I mean, it’s not like the pictures are bad... It’s just, uh-” She looked away while her blush intensified. “I just, oh you hear that? Beepbeepbeep! It’smyearringsgottagobye!” And with that, she hooked her yoyo to the nearest roof and disappeared without leaving a trail.  


Adrien got a slight sense of déjà vu but quickly shook it off. ‘That’s what girls do’, right?

┅┅┅┅┅

What good had a short akuma been if he had had to spend most of the night at a photoshoot? If Adrien ever came across the person that had come up with the idea of doing photoshoots with the moonlight in the middle of the night he’d only slap them if he managed to control himself. One late night photoshoot normally wasn’t an issue, but when you had been battling midnight akumas for the past three weeks, it was the tipping point for the wave of exhaustion to come crashing down on him.  


The whole day was a blur, avoiding concerned glances from Nino, barely taking illegible notes, and trying to squeeze little naps in the moments between classes. But the day was finally over and he estimated that he had about ten minutes before his driver showed up to get him, and he was going to make them count. He was about to slip away when a scream coming from behind him startled him. He managed to look up in time to see Chloé fuming down the class stairs and leaving the classroom while she slammed the door behind her.  


He turned back to see that the classroom was empty, save for him and a very angry Marinette glaring daggers at the closed door. Oh, so that’s why Chloé had left like that. She turned to direct her gaze at him and he almost bolted, that was a look to be scared of, but once she noticed he wasn’t Chloé that look left her eyes, and he almost expected her to start blushing. Instead, an exhausted expression that probably mirrored his mood took over her face, she let herself fall on her chair to rest her head on the table.  


He had probably never sympathized to her this much: fighting with the usual while being drained? Pretty much his everyday life. She seemed like she had just been waiting for the school day to end to take a break, but Chloé had interrupted her in the process, so he chose that moment to tell her how much he admired her for standing up to her. He got up from his seat and went to stand just beside her’s, he leaned down to whisper in her ear, but the words never managed to leave his mouth.  


He didn’t realize it happened until his butt was on the floor, but the burning pain in his hand was proof that it had happened: Marinette had slapped his hand and instantly after shoved him to the floor, just because he had gotten close to her ears. He never thought that a girl that looked so close to passing out could react so quickly, or hit so hard, or glare daggers at him, or hiss at him for that matter.  


He tried to find words, but couldn’t find them and just stared at her in silence until she decided that he was no longer a threat and dropped her look. Then she seemed to realize what she had done and went back to her usual self: awkward, nervous, blushing, and stammering.  


“Oh my god, Adrien! I am sososososo sorry.” She bent down to help him up and he reached for her hand without a word still trying to process what happened. “I swear I didn’t mean to do that. I don’t know what happened, oh my god! Are you okay? Does it hurt?” She refused to meet his eyes. “Marinette, of course it hurts, his hand is turning red! Okay, okay I can explain this I can, it’s just…” The few seconds that she scrambled to look for an explanation felt like years. “That’s what girls do?” She seemed to notice the fact that he didn’t plan to answer anytime soon and the panic returned. “Anyway, I hope you feel better, oh look at the hour-Igottagobye!” And with that, she bolted out of the classroom. He normally had half the heart to call out for people running away from him, but he hadn’t managed to leave his mental bubble yet.  


The situation felt wrong, but not because of what had happened to him, but because of Marinette’s behavior. The only other person Adrien had seen so protective over their jewelry was Chloé, he still remembered how hard she had slapped his hand and the yelling fit that had come afterward when he had tried to see the new gold earrings she had been wearing without warning her. Adrien had to be in a new universe: since when did Marinette and Chloé had anything in common? Well, with Chloé and Ladybug, but Ladybug did have a good reason to be overly protective about her earrings, he had also gotten a hand slap when he tried to whisper something to her and she hadn’t seen it was him.  


Wait, Adrien backtracked his thoughts, Marinette and Ladybug, he had never thought about them together before, but now that he did, it was like something clicked. After all, this was not the only thing they had in common, they had very similar personalities, and they weren’t that different physically either. Marinette and Ladybug, Marinette and Ladybug, Marinette and Ladybug, Marinette-and-Ladybug, Marinette-is-Ladybug… Marinette IS Ladybug!  


While Adrien tried to not have a complete meltdown, every interaction he had ever had with her came rushing back to his mind: every attack, every class, every nonsense excuse. ‘That’s what girls do’, huh? At least that made sense now. He started to calm down and a smug smile took over his shocked face. He’d find a time to use that phrase against his lady later, right now he had more important things to do.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm also on Tumblr: [@breathing-and-writing](https://breathing-and-writing.tumblr.com/)


End file.
